Today’s Lady News: Steven Tyler’s Abortion

Back in the ’70s, Steven Tyler got his 14-year-old girlfriend pregnant (most likely while high on loads of drugs). At the suggestion of their friends, she had an abortion, which is described in the 1975 oral history of Aerosmith, Walk This Way, as an experience that really “messed Steven up.” In Steven’s new memoir, Does The Noise In My Head Bother You?, he touches on his relationship with the young woman and their drug addiction: Steven later left the young woman for Bebe Buell — Liv Tyler’s mom — and she became suicidal. A right-wing writer for National Review, a conservative magazine, is now using Steven’s story to illustrate an example of “post-abortion syndrome,” a quack diagnosis that is not acknowledged by medical professionals. Steven Tyler’s drug abuse, philandering and anger management problems were all “symptoms” of a grieving post-abortive father, according author Kevin Burke. Ugh, this pisses me off to no end. No one except for Steven Tyler can say for sure exactly what encouraged his lifelong addictions and I find it gross and opportunistic than some right-winger is shrieking, “It’s because of the abortion!” [Jezebel, National Review]

Here’s yet another depressing reminder that black women are mostly depicted as stereotypes in popular culture. [Newsweek]

A billionaire on New York City’s Upper East Side is being investigated for refusing to employ a Filipino woman on the basis of her nationality. The woman, 55-year-old Esther Winkley, spent one day cleaning the apartment of Leonard Blavatnik as a trial run. When she never heard back about being hired for the job, her headhunter called the Blavatnik household and was reportedly told by the butler, “No Phillippines, please.” An investigation is now underway with NYC’s Human Rights Commission. [Gothamist]

I’ve loved Jane Fonda as an activist and an actress for years, so I really enjoyed this New Yorker profile on her. For much of Jane’s life, she sought power through her famous husbands Roger Vadim, Tom Hayden and Ted Turner. Only recently, it seems, is Jane owning her own power for herself. [The New Yorker (abstract only)]

How much of a “fantasy girl” should a woman be willing to be for her partner? [Sexy Feminist]

Tina Brown, the editor of The Daily Beast/Newsweek and the former editor of The New Yorker and Talk magazines, gets a profile this weekend in The New York Times Magazine. [New York Times Magazine]

Christina Norman, the CEO of Oprah Winfrey’s network OWN, is stepping down only five months after the channel’s launch. Christina will be replaced by Peter Liguori. [The Wrap]

Here’s a meditation on how the mainstream media covers feminism — such as assuming all feminists all believe the same things. [The F Word]

Actress Marian Mercer, who won a Tony award in 1969 for “Promises, Promises,” passed away in April at age 75. Later in life, Marian also appeared on “St. Elsewhere” and “The Golden Girls.” [New York Times]

INTERNATIONAL

Brazil’s highest court has ruled that same-sex civil unions must be recognized so that gay couples get each other’s retirement benefits, inheritances and alimony payments. The court did not, however, legalize gay marriage. [Washington Post]

Leolah Brown, sister to Bobby Brown and aunt to Bobbi Kristina was kicked out of her niece’s funeral yesterday after verbally lashing at Pat Houston Bobbi Kristina’s former manager as well as sister-in-law to Bobbi Kristina’s mother Whitney Houston. Phew. That was a mouthful.